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Survival guide

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Who is teaching online?

• Low teaching experience• Low online training /experience

(Why?)

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4 phases of a course

1. Introduction and group formations2. Whole class or general purpose group

activities3. Small group or specific group activities4. Pruning, reflecting, wrapping up

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Phase 1- Introduction and group formations

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Ten tips for beginners

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1- Essential course elements.

• Syllabus (goals, requirements, textbook, readings, schedule, assessment, contact info)

• Weekly teaching guide (short memo on weekly assignments)

• Discussions and rubrics ( spend time to develop good questions and good rubrics for assessment)

• LMS (You need a CMS, or LMS such as blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, D2L) Why?

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2- How not to lose the first week?

• Contact your students before to the course • Make sure technical support staff is available• Make sure students have the right tools and

know how to access the course.

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3- How an online syllabus is different

• In f2f courses students know what they are supposed to do or NOT TO DO.

• We cannot assume that students know how to communicate in an online course (They may know what to do in Facebook and Tweeter but not in an online course. )

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Therefore,

You should include• Discussion netiquette• Email (discussion posts) Netiquette• Allow or not allow Emoticons?• Remind students that their posts are for all

not just for you• Some notes about plagiarism

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Netiquette

• The Core Rules of Netiquette • http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.h

tml

• Email Etiquette: 26 Rules to Follow• http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/tp

/core_netiquette.htm

• List of emoticons• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

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Plagiarism

Grammarly• http://www.grammarly.com/?q=plagiarism&g

clid=CPmdh_TJzq0CFQduhwodNyU1mQ

• Self-detection• http://www.plagiarism.com/self.detect.htm • Turn-it-in• https://turnitin.com/static/index.php

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4- Be Present

Before the course or at the beginning post something about yourself (getting-acquainted) picture, voice, video

• Short biography• Link to your publications• Your favorites• Your hobbies

Ask students do the same thing

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4- Be Present

• Us the announcement tool frequently• Participate in discussions???

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5- Know your students’ minds individually

• Why are you taking this course? • What do you expect to learn?• What are your goals?• What do you know about?

Getting acquainted What is particularly unique about you?What is your most memorable “aha” learning

moment?

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6- Have a weekly rhythm

We learned that if something can be done anywhere, and anytime, it never gets done.

Instead,• A question or a challenge is posted on Monday• Initial responses due by Wednesday• Comments on others students’ posting due by

Friday

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7- The importance of discussion boards

• What is the big deal about online discussion?

• It is only when students are responding to a question or to another students’ ideas that they begin to realize what they know and what they don’t know.

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The difference

The instructor generally plans the online discussion in more detail with more specific goals in mind.

Why?

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How many discussion questions?

• For short answer questions (1-3 paragraphs) 2-3 per week

• For more complex questions 1-2 per week

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Postings guidelinealready sent to you

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Postings guideline

• Should continue a conversation (not fragmented or patchy) and provide hooks for additional continuous dialogues

• Postings should be evenly distributed

• Avoid simply “I agree”, “great idea” , “me too”If you agree; why? Provide Examples-documents…

• Keep on topic and don’t let the discussion stray

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Postings guideline

• Incorporate quotations and references to support your idea

• Use netiquette rules and proper language and correct spelling, grammar.

• The discussions should not take longer than 2 weeks

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8- Use all types of questions (instructor)

• Questions that ask for more evidence• Questions that ask for clarification• Open questions• Linking or extension questions• Hypothetical questions• Cause and effect questions• Compare and contrast questions• Evaluate something• Summary and synthesis questions

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More tips on discussion questions

• Conduct a brief opinion or thought poll to arouse interest

• Present activities that require considering opposing views

• Create cognitive dissonance, provoke discomfort, unsettle confirmed notions, uncover misconceptions, inspire curiosity, and pose problems

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More tips on discussion questions

• Suggest mediatory argument promoting a resolution acceptable to both sides.

• Ask students to discuss and evaluate Internet resources

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9- Managing and evaluating discussions

• Online discussion sometimes is more valuable than f2f discussion. why?

• A part of grade should be discussion participation, At least %15 of total grade should be allocated to discussions.

• Expectations- how often to log in , how many posts, length of posts, depth of posts

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10- The Faculty Role

As the course progresses, the roles of faculty and students change

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Phase 2- Whole class or large group activities

• 12 tips for Early Middle weeks

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Tip 1- Announcement, E-mail, and discussion forums

• Any question worth answering for one student is probably worth answering all of them.

Therefore, most often use mass email or announcement rather than personal answers to emails

• New generation prefers IMS (text) rather than Email. Therefore, IMS reaches faster than email and email reaches faster than announcements

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Tip 2- Good use of LMS, CMS tools

• Use the “performance dashboard” or similar tools to monitor students’ access to the LMS/CMS.

• Use the Item Analysis

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3- Changing plans

• Weekly Rhythm is for predictability and consistency, However, if unexpected happens the course syllabus may change.

• Usually the best option is to move the due date to a later rather than earlier date.

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Feedback to students

• If you don’t have time for individual feedback due to an increase in course enrollment you may prepare some “Feedback Templates”

• Send your feedback to both to individuals and to small groups

• You may use voice or video in your feedback??

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Feedback Templates

• excellent, good, fine, etc.• grammar, citation, critical thinking, organization…• participation this week! Your primary postings

demonstrated an understanding of this week's topic and were contributed in a timely manner. You also responded to at least 2 peers in each question, either asking them a clarifying question or building on their comment.“

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Tip 4- Early feedback from learners

• Making an anonymous suggestion box.• Giving a quiz on your course syllabus• Detailed survey (satisfaction)• Using a Forum (suggestions)

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Sample Survey

• I understand what the course requirements and assignment due dates are.

• The instructor responds promptly to student questions and concerns.

• I have a clear idea how to make a substantive contribution to the weekly discussion through my postings.

• I understand how the rubrics work.

• The weekly discussion questions posted by the instructor are stimulating and cause me to think about the content.

• I feel free to voice an opinion that my instructor may not agree with.

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Using a Forum (suggestions)

• Is there anything you would like to see changed?• Do you have any "just wondering" questions?• Are the directions and expectations for the discussion

board clear?• Does the structure of the course-the topics and the

requirements make sense for you?• Are the course expectations and assignments clear?• How intellectually stimulating are the selected resources?• What course communication tools do you check or use

every day or almost every day?

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Tip 5- Use Rubrics, Quizzes,

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Rubric for participation

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Tip 6- How to form groups

• Clear directions about the purpose • Don’t let students to set up their own teams??• Common interest is a good way to assign

groups ?? (sometimes the opposite works better)• You may group based on time zones• Mix students of gender, ethnicity, age groups• Small groups of 3-5 works better than large

groups

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Tip 7- Use a teaching assistant

• If the number of students is more than 25• You may spend a lot of time to train your

assistant and sometimes you have to spend time to undo what she did.

• However, overall the time/benefit ratio is usually positive

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Tip 8- promote peer interaction(group work)

Some online learners wish to be left alone

–However, as learning happens within an individual,it also happens within a social context.–Our ideas often become clearer when we articulate

them in writing or talking or in thinking out aloud.–Peer interaction reduces the feeling of isolation.

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Promote peer interaction

• Assign some points for participation• Set a minimum number of required responses

that must be made to peers.• Provide a place for Q&A for students.• Design peer review activities

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Tip 9- Use various technologies

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K-12 Educational Software• An educational computer simulation or a

video game enhances interactivity

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Tip 10- Use Audio and Video

• Instead of text only

• Podcasts• Youtube• Elluminate• Voicethread• Screencasts• Webface/avatars (CodeBaby, SitePal, Voki)

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Tip 11- A good post

• Substantial: Messages should relate to the subject matter and provide information, opinions, or questions about that subject matter.

• Concise: Studies have shown that messages that are several screens long, do not get many replies. The message should be clear.

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• Provocative: A good message is one that prompts others to reply or object.

• Expla’natory: A good message explores, explains, or expands on a concept or connection.

• Timely: A good member of the learning community gets on regularly and replies to messages in a timely fashion.

• Logical: A good message should contain a clearly stated conclusion or thesis supported by premises, reason, evidence, or grounds of belief.

• Grammatical: A good, clear, and concise message should be well written and free of typos and sentence fragments.

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Provide examples of good postsProvide examples of the kinds of questions they may want to ask each

other • "Your point about X is not clear to me. Can you state it another way,• or provide an example?" This helps to clarify thinking.• "Do you have any additional evidence to support your thinking• about X?"• "You describe how your thinking has changed. What influenced that• change?"• "What assumptions are you making about X? How would your

statements• change with different assumptions?"

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Tip 12 – Discussion wraps

• Create a closing discussion thread labeled “summary”, wrap-up”, Key ideas”, or “key concept” for individual students.

• Ask for a group summary• Create your own text or audio/video wrap-up

summary

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Students’ summary guide • Where has this discussion taken my understandings? Our group'sunderstandings?• What have I learned? What do I know now that I did not know

before?• What is next? Are there actions that we should pursue at some

point?• Have I changed how I think about these ideas or this problem?• What do the experts think?• What does our faculty leader think? (It is important for students

toknow our opinion, because we are a guide to the experts, if not one of the experts.)

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General TipsFor Beginners

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1- Be present at the course site

• Students expect 24/7• Be present in some way everyday• You may assign mentors or facilitators but not

for a long time• Show your students that you care about who

they are, their questions, concerns• Beware that online courses take significantly

more faculty time than f2f courses

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3- Be specific and consider time limits

• Be clear on your expectations. How much and how exactly do you expect students to participate in discussions

• How much time is needed for doing each activity

• Setup a time limit for responding questions both for L and F.

• Have a form of (not F2F) virtual office hours

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4- Use a combo of small, large group, and individual assignments

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5- Use a combo of synchronous and asynchronous activities

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6- Use text or content that is available in digital format

• No printed textbooks (Why?)• Make links to current events into discussions• Use online video, tutorials, and simulations

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7- Combine core concepts and personalized (optional) goals

Core Concepts (students don’t like this-Explain why this is needed)+Give students to choose activities that is related to their jobs, life, and interests.

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8- Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course

In a relaxed environment- (How?) Help them to get ready for final exam or make a

list of things they need to do for their project.